Lol Tolhurst presents "Cured" in Latin America

[dsanchez]

Lol is presenting his book in several Latin american countries (Peru, Chile, Argentina, Mexico). In Peru, he presented his book in the "Hay Festival" in Arequipa (1000km south of Lima) and played a few Cure songs after that with guest Peruvian musicians:

Lol Tolhurst at #HayArequipa19. Later today he talks about his new book, Cured, and performs.

📸: @marinagb pic.twitter.com/VpfOBlDvIE

— Hay Festival (@hayfestival) November 8, 2019

[dsanchez]

Two clips more from Peru:

"Killing An Arab" inspirado por L'Etranger de Albert Camus pic.twitter.com/lF4QeA8fOR

— Kate Harrisson 🇬🇧 (@kate_harrisson) November 9, 2019

"Si tienes un sueño, una visión de lo que quieres hacer tienes que seguirlo, tienes que hacerlo porque te salvará, te salvará la vida. La música me salvó la vida."@LolTolhurst #Musica 🎵#HayArequipa19 pic.twitter.com/MponjEdsmt

— Hay Festival Esp (@hayfestival_esp) November 9, 2019

"Boys Don't Cry", un clásico de The Cure, con Lol Tolhurst en la batería. #hayfestivalarequipa2019 pic.twitter.com/rluXY4RJSN

— Luces El Comercio (@Luces_ECpe) November 9, 2019

[dsanchez]

Lol's interview with Peru's largest newspaper. The original (in Spanish) can be read here:

Is it true that you have found Arequipa quite gothic?

Well, yes, to start because there are churches everywhere. And I also went to see the mummy Juanita, which is quite scary (laughs). A friend saw the photos he had taken of Arequipa and told me that they looked like a dreamlike landscape. I think I agree. It seems as if everything I've read from writers in South America could find it here. It is the first time I come to Peru, but I already had an image formed in my head and it is quite similar to what I imagined.

Is it also your first time in South America since the tour with The Cure in Argentina and Brazil, in 1987? What do you remember from those visits?

Well, it's been so long that sometimes memory fails me. I do remember that Brazil was very different from everything I had seen. That is, you can go to Europe, the United States or Australia and you will find similar audiences. But there are two unique and very different places. One is Japan, because there everything seems to be under control: thousands of very disciplined people at the concert, who gave us coordinated applause at the end of each song, because it is their way of being. And the other, on the opposite side, is South America, especially Brazil. That presentation was overwhelming ... Argentina was a different case because we were aware of what was happening in the country, we understood that people were leaving a time of dictatorship and oppression. It was not exactly fear, but some alert when they knocked down a fence and it seemed that chaos was unleashed.

Is it true that you or just Robert Smith promised never to play again in Argentina?

I don't think it's true, and I don't think that's what Robert would have thought. I know him well and I know that the first thing that goes through his mind is the people, the spectators who are going to see the band. For him the public will always be a priority. I imagine it must have been a kind of rumor that appeared there.

His childhood and adolescence in England consisted of a musical training based on magazines, some TV programs. Would you say that context is very different from today? How do you see the news in comparison?

I think in some ways it is very similar. Overall, I think the internet has been a great invention for certain things, but it has also put an end to many others. Today everyone has everything available permanently. In my time, just looking for music generated a kind of secret societies, which were busy looking for concerts and going to discover new artists. Today I don't think that is experienced in the same way with Spotify, for example. That is why I am not an enthusiast. I think the internet has killed the magic of discovering new music.

How to lose the habit of listening to a complete album or forgetting the physical sensation of having a record in your hands ...

Exactly, things like that have been lost. Look, towards the end of the year I will return to the studio to record a new album with a friend, in a project that I can't talk about much, but that makes me very excited. And yet, I feel at the same time that it is almost irrelevant. Of course I will make every effort not to do so, but I am aware of that risk. When I was a teenager, I had a long list of records that I wanted to buy and bought one every week. And every time I had a new one I began to review in detail everything that appeared in it. Even today I can remember very clear details. One of my first albums was Jimi Hendrix's "Axis: Bold as Love." Fifty years have passed, but I can still remember the lyrics of the songs, their sound. It was like a treasure. But today we live in a consumer society and music has become a 'commodity' more.

What would Lol Tolhurst have been if he had not been part of The Cure or even a musician?

I have thought about it. And one thing I must point out is that the way I saw The Cure was not the same as Robert's. In my case, entering The Cure was a leak, the escape from a boring life in Crawley, my city. Robert, on the other hand, did have another vision, he wanted to be a famous musician, that really was his wish. I knew that if I wanted to escape from my reality I only had two paths: or I could be a famous footballer (which in my case would have been difficult, unlike Robert, who played quite well); Or I could get into a band. And I told myself "that's what I will do". At the same time, of course, I went to school, but what I really wanted was to be out of that reality, to flee from that city. Some time ago, something about my book appeared in the local Crawley newspaper and the headline said: "Lol hates us, but this town still loves him." But they don't love me! That's a lie. And I don't hate them either! It's just that I always wanted to get out of that place. In fact, all the people I loved in that city no longer live there.

By the way, he mentioned football: are you and Robert fans of any particular team?

I've always been a follower of Chelsea, and Robert of Queens Park rangers. It always has been for some strange reason (laughs).

He has said that "Pornography" (1982) is still his favorite album of The Cure. Now I would like to ask you to mention a single favorite song. And don't tell me that all ...

Is that all songs are like my daughters, I can not choose (laughs). Well, I'm going to say that when I'm driving the car I really like to listen to "Cold". I love the beginning and I clearly remember how we recorded it in the studio. It is a subject that surprises me a lot when listening to it and knowing that it was we who could do something like that.

Was it hard to change the dark sound of The Cure for a more pop-oriented one?

I have always been surprised that musicians are the only artists who are always required to follow in the same. A painter or writer, on the other hand, is recriminated if they repeat what they have done before, right? But you have to understand that all artists evolve. And the same happened with us.

You had two stages in The Cure: as a drummer and as a keyboardist. What did you like best?

Battery. And especially now. That is, I love the sound of keyboards, the possibility of creating sounds that affect emotionally, especially in electronic music. But there is something that makes the battery special, even more so now that I am older. It's very spiritual, it's like a mantra, and as I get older I feel closer to the essence of things when I'm behind the battery. And of course I'm glad my body can still do it. I know many drummers friends and share that same feeling.

I read "Cured" as a book about redemption. Do you think writing it was the last part of a healing process? Or is it a process still open?

Well, the official end of the book was not the original end. The closure was going to be the image of Robert and I sitting on a beach in Hawaii. It was a scene that I had from the beginning and I started writing all of the above. But the last thing that happened to me was to be at the airport and meet by chance with Pearl Thompson (formerly Porl Thompson, guitarist of The Cure). There I understood that that should be the end, the closing of a circle for me. And yes, I am cured to some extent, but I feel it is a process that is still going on. Likewise, "Cured" has been the most creative work I've done since I left The Cure. And that is wonderful.